Flying the Delta California Shuttle from SFO to LAX on an Embraer jet (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

In domestic route news, Delta puts an end to the Shuttle brand for key West Coast routes; Alaska adds a pair of new San Diego markets; United expands Hawaii service from its Denver hub; American is adding regional/seasonal service next summer from O’Hare, DFW and elsewhere; Sun Country comes to Hawaii; JetBlue adds a New England route – and a new fee; OneJet takes on an intrastate market in New York; and Spirit grows at Ft. Lauderdale.

Starting next week, Delta plans to phase out its specially-branded West Coast Shuttle service, which operates on the San Francisco-Seattle, SFO-Los Angeles and Seattle-Los Angeles routes. It’s not taking the flights away – although it might trim some frequencies – just folding them into its regular schedules, and and starting next summer, switching from its Delta Connection fleet of Embraer aircraft to Delta mainline jets. It will likely end some of the little perks that the Shuttle branding promised, like free drinks in the main cabin, gates close to the security checkpoint, special check-in counters, local craft beers and free Luvo snacks. Why is Delta making the change? A spokesperson said this was “based on several factors, including a review of the competitive landscape, customer survey data and ongoing facility improvements at LAX and Sea-Tac, these changes will allow Delta to offer a more consistent experience, which is highly valued by our customers.” The change will not affect Delta’s East Coast Shuttle operation out of New York LaGuardia to Boston, Washington D.C. and Chicago – although those flights recently moved from LGA’s Marine Air Terminal to Terminal C.

In the latest phase of its growth plan at San Diego, Alaska Airlines this month launched new daily flights from SAN to both Kansas City and St. Louis. In the past four months, the airline has boosted its San Diego presence with new daily flights to Omaha, Austin, Albuquerque, and Minneapolis-St. Paul. In mid-February, Alaska will add daily service from SAN to Dallas Love Field.

United is boosting Hawaii service from Denver International. (Image: Jim Glab)

United is boosting schedules to Hawaii from its Denver hub. It already offered daily flights from DEN to Honolulu, but in the New Year it will expand frequencies to other islands as well, offering daily non-stops year-round from DEN to Kahului, Maui; to Kona on the Big Island; and to Lihue, Kauai. Previously, United’s schedules offered daily or almost-daily service on those routes during some winter and summer months, but frequencies varied at other times of the year, ranging from six flights a week to one a week to none at all.

The latest schedule filings from American Airlines show new service coming on several domestic routes next summer, all using regional jets operated by partners Envoy Air, ExpressJet, Republic and PSA. The new service includes six daily roundtrips between Philadelphia and New York JFK starting April 3; seasonal daily service from Miami and Chicago O’Hare to Savannah, Ga., starting June 7; twice-daily O’Hare-Burlington, Vt. Service from June 7-Septeber 4; daily service from O’Hare to Charleston, S.C., starting May 4; daily O’Hare-Missoula, Mont. flights from June 7-September 4; twice-daily service from O’Hare to Portland, Me., from June 7-October 3; and a daily flight from O’Hare to Wilmington, N.C., from June 7-September 4. Also on the schedule is new daily service from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Missoula starting June 8.

A Sun Country Airlines 737. (Image: Sun Country)

Just after its acquisition this month by a New York-based investment group, Minnesota’s Sun Country Airlines announced plans to begin service to Honolulu, although on a limited basis. The carrier will offer service from its Minneapolis-St. Paul home base to Honolulu via a stop in Los Angeles, but only four days a week, and only from May 19 through August 19. Sun Country will also introduce new service from MSP to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, operating twice a week from April 6-June 4.

Although Worcester, Mass., isn’t all that far from Boston, it does have its own airport, which is served by only one carrier – JetBlue. In addition to its existing flights from Worcester Regional Airport to Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando, JetBlue said it will add daily Embraer 190 flights between Worcester and New York JFK on May 3. In other news, JetBlue has added a new $75 fee for travelers who want to stand by for a seat on a flight earlier or later in the day than their schedule departure.

For the past seven years, it hasn’t been possible to fly non-stop across New York State from Buffalo to Albany. But that possibility will return on February 1 when public charter operator OneJet plans to begin twice-daily service on the route with ERJ-135 regional jets – larger aircraft than the seven- or eight-seat Hawker 400XP business jets that OneJet usually uses.

Spirit Airlines has announced plans for an expansion at Ft. Lauderdale, beginning new daily service to Columbus, Ohio, on February 15, followed by daily flights from FLL to Richmond, Va., starting March 15, and seasonal daily service from FLL to Seattle beginning April 12.

First class cabin on Hawaiian’s A321neo, coming to a new San Diego-Maui route in 2018. (Image: Hawaiian)

In domestic route news, Hawaiian Airlines will increase service to the islands from the West Coast next year; Alaska Airlines is about to begin a new Hawaii route from San Francisco; American adds Oakland as a spoke from a major hub, and plans several other new routes; JetBlue adds more transcontinental Mint service this month; and Spirit unveils 10 new domestic route starting next spring.

Hawaiian Airlines, which is on the verge of beginning commercial service with its new Airbus A321neos, said it will use the planes to expand service from the West Coast next year. The airline will add a new route on May 1 between San Diego and Kahului Airport on Maui using an A321neo, and will begin extra seasonal summer flights with the aircraft (in addition to its regular schedule) between San Francisco and Honolulu from May 26 through July 31, and between Oakland and Kona from May 26 through September 2. The carrier has also scheduled an extra seasonal flight between Los Angeles and Kahului, Maui from June 1-August 31, using an A330.

According to FlightGlobal.com, Hawaiian will actually start flying the new A221neos on December 19, deploying them on inter-island routes to familiarize its flight crews with the aircraft. The carrier is due to put the planes into mainland service starting January 8 from Oakland to Maui, and on January 18 from Portland to Maui.

Speaking of Hawaii, Alaska Airlines next week will start flying the last of several new Bay Area routes that it announced earlier this year. On December 14, the carrier will inaugurate daily service between San Francisco and Kona, on the Big Island, using a Virgin America aircraft. The SFO departure time is scheduled for 11 a.m.

American will use an A320 on its new Oakland-DFW route. (Image: Jim Glab)

American Airlines will kick off new Bay Area service next spring. The carrier plans to start daily flights on April 3 between Oakland and its Dallas/Ft. Worth hub, with an 11:50 a.m. departure from OAK and a 9:10 a.m. departure from DFW, using an A320. American also announced some new domestic routes out of its Chicago O’Hare hub starting next spring, including twice-daily ORD-Charleston, S.C. flights beginning May 4; and weekend-only service from ORD to Bangor, Maine and Myrtle Beach, S.C., starting June 7, using American Eagle/Envoy Air CRJ700s. At Phoenix, American will kick off daily flights to Amarillo, Tex. and Oklahoma City on April 3, using Mesa Airlines CRJ900s. On the same date, it will add twice-daily LaGuardia-Portland, Maine service with Enviy Air ERJ140s.

Elsewhere, American’s 2018 schedule includes some new Saturday-only seasonal routes, all flown with regional jets, including DFW-Asheville, N.C., DFW-Myrtle Beach, DFW-Wilmington and Los Angeles-Bozeman, Mont., all operating June 9-August 18; LAX-Flagstaff, Ariz., May 5-September 1; and New York LaGuardia-Traverse City, Mich., June 23-September 2. Finally, on February 14, the company will terminate its American Eagle/SkyWest service from Phoenix to Bullhead City, Ariz./Laughlin, Nevada, due to a lack of passenger demand.

The next step in JetBlue’s ongoing expansion of its premium-cabin Mint service, with lie-flat seats, comes on December 10, when the carrier is slated to introduce a Mint-equipped aircraft on one of its daily San Diego-Boston flights, adding a second daily Mint flight on the route starting December 20. It already offers Mint cabins on two daily San Diego-New York JFK flights. Last month, JetBlue added Mint service on two daily New York JFK-Las Vegas flights.

Spirit Airlines unveiled a bunch of new domestic routes that will kick off next spring, including daily year-round service from Baltimore/Washington to Denver beginning March 22; daily year-round flights between Tampa-Los Angeles, Tampa-Las Vegas and Orlando-Las Vegas starting April 12; daily seasonal service from Seattle to Ft. Lauderdale, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Minneapolis-St. Paul beginning April 12; and daily seasonal flights from Detroit to San Diego and Portland kicking off April 23.

United is adding several regional routes in 2018 using Embraer aircraft like this . (Image: United)

In domestic route developments, United announced plans to serve a bevy of new regional markets next year; Alaska will add a big spoke from its Seattle hub; American will expand at Washington Reagan National in 2018; and Spirit grows at Columbus and New Orleans.

United plans to launch new service in 2018 from five major airports to several smaller ones. At its Chicago O’Hare hub, United will begin year-round twice-daily service starting April 9 to El Paso, Tex., and to Wilmington, N.C. (By the way, United said that starting next February, it will implement an “enhanced bank structure” at O’Hare that will mean “shorter connection times and better access to more destinations” for connecting passengers.)

Also beginning April 9 for United will be a daily Denver-Jacksonville flight, and twice-daily service from Los Angeles to both Redmond and Medford, Oregon; from Newark to Elmira, N.Y.; and from Washington Dulles to Wilmington, N.C.

New seasonal service from United, beginning June 7, includes daily flights from O’Hare to Fresno, California; and from LAX to Kalispell and Missoula, Montana (all located near major national parks). All the above flights will use regional jets operated by United Express partners.

Routesonline.com turned up some additional smaller new markets for United Express next year. It said United will launch service on January 30 from Denver to Scottsbluff, Nebraska, twice a day; on February 1 from Denver to North Platte, Nebraska, twice a day; and on February 6 from Denver to Pueblo, Colorado and Liberal, Kansas six times a week. United had previously announced new service from Denver to Moab, Utah starting May 1 and to Vernal, Utah beginning June 1.

Alaska Airlines will begin service in September 2018 to the 90th destination from its Seattle hub when it adds a daily 737 flight to Pittsburgh, with an 8:25 a.m. eastbound departure and a return flight leaving Pittsburgh at 5:20 p.m. Currently, there is no non-stop service in the Seattle-Pittsburgh market.

American Airlines plans to add service in various domestic markets next year, including three new routes from Washington Reagan National. New DCA service for American will include a daily CRJ900 flight to Tallahassee starting February 15, and six CRJ200 flights a week to Montgomery, Alabama, as of June 7, both operated by PSA Airlines; and a daily E175 flight from DCA to Little Rock, operated by Republic Airlines. American will also expand its weekend-only service to daily between DCA and Destin/Ft. Walton Beach, Florida starting May 4; and between DCA and Myrtle Beach, S.C. as of April 3.

Elsewhere, American will begin twice-daily flights in April between New York LaGuardia and Portland, Maine, with 50-seat regional jets. And on February 15, American will begin mainline A320 service between its Charlotte hub and Tucson, Arizona, with a very-late-night (12:30 a.m.) eastbound departure time.

Spirit Airlines announced plans to add Columbus, Ohio to its network on February 15, offering daily, year-round service to Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale and Las Vegas, as well as seasonal daily flights to Tampa and Ft. Myers that will end April 11 and resume November 8. On March 22, Spirit will add seasonal service three times a week from Columbus to New Orleans and Myrtle Beach, continuing through November 7. On March 15, Spirit will also begin daily flights from Richmond, Virginia to Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale. Earlier this month, Spirit launched new daily service from New Orleans to Boston, Newark, Tampa and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Southwest Airlines is adding new San Jose routes next spring. (Image: Chris McGinnis)

We have a lot of airline route news to catch up on following our August break, so we’ll start with domestic developments. Southwest’s spring schedule additions include several new routes out of San Jose and Sacramento; Alaska also starts new service at San Jose; United will join Alaska in flying out of a new Pacific Northwest airport, and adds a seasonal ski market from San Francisco; American will start new service from Denver, and will put a wide-body on a San Francisco transcon route; Delta’s Salt Lake City hub gets a new spoke, and Las Vegas gets more Hawaii flights; JetBlue grows at Atlanta and Boston; Spirit adds a Las Vegas transcon route; and Frontier expands at San Antonio.

The battle for California is paying off for Golden State travelers with tons of new routes and low fares. Southwest Airlines last week unveiled plans for significant expansion in California next spring. On April 8, the airline will kick off new daily service from San Jose to Boise, St. Louis, Austin, Spokane and Houston Hobby, along with new daily flights from Sacramento to Austin and St. Louis. Southwest will follow that up on May 6 by launching new daily service to Orlando from both San Jose and Sacramento. Officials at SJC said Southwest will also expand existing routes there starting April 8, adding a second daily roundtrip to both Chicago Midway and Dallas Love Field, a fifth to Seattle, a sixth to Phoenix, and a fifth and sixth daily flight from SJC to Portland., along with new Sunday-only service to Albuquerque and New Orleans.

In Florida, Southwest on April 8 will add three daily roundtrips between Ft. Lauderdale and Jacksonville and daily non-stops between Milwaukee and Houston Hobby. On March 8, Southwest is due to discontinue its non-stop flights between Dallas Love Field and Milwaukee, and between Philadelphia and West Palm Beach, and will seasonally suspend service between Oakland-Tucson, Washington Reagan National-Ft. Myers, and Minneapolis/St. Paul-Ft. Lauderdale.

United will join Alaska in flying out of Washington State’s Paine Field next year. (Image: Alaska Airlines)

Travelers in San Francisco and Denver will get a new option for flights to the Seattle area next year with United’s announcement that it will add service from those cities to Paine Field, 23 miles north of Seattle. Starting in the fall of 2018, United said, it plans to start offering six flights a day from Paine to its SFO and DEN hubs. Last spring, Alaska Airlines announced plans to begin the first commercial airline service from Paine Field in the fall of next year, although it didn’t say which routes it would serve. In other route news, United will begin twice-weekly seasonal service on December 18 between San Francisco and Vail/Eagle, Colorado, with CRJ700s operated by SkyWest. Elsewhere, United/SkyWest on November 1 will begin service six days a week to Clarksburg, West Virginia, from both Chicago O’Hare and Washington Dulles with CRJ200s.

Speaking of Alaska Airlines, that carrier last week kicked off new routes at San Jose, adding daily flights to both Austin and Tucson, using the popular Embraer E175 regional jets. That gives Alaska 31 daily departures at SJC to 18 destinations.

SJC is expanding, adding two new gates (29 & 30) at the southern end of the Terminal B for use by Alaska Air (Image: SJC)

On October 5, American Airlines is planning to replace the A321 currently used on one of its daily Philadelphia-San Francisco flights (AA722/723) with a wide-body Airbus A330-200. The bigger plane is currently scheduled to keep flying the route through December 14. Next year, beginning June 7, American plans to operate a daily summer flight between Denver and New York JFK with a 737-800. In other news, The Dallas News reports that American will offer 2-4-2 premium economy seating on its Hawaii routes from Dallas/Ft. Worth, using retrofitted 777-200s. The roomier seats are available from DFW to Honolulu and Maui starting in December, and from DFW to Kona beginning next June.

On December 21, Delta plans to begin new daily service between its Salt Lake City hub and Milwaukee, using an E175 operated by SkyWest. Delta is also extending its planned Las Vegas-Honolulu 757 service, which was originally scheduled for daily holiday flights from December 21 to January 14. Now they will continue as Saturday-only service from January 15, increasing to three flights a week February 16.

JetBlue is adding three more Atlanta routes. (Image: Jim Glab)

JetBlue finally broke into the Atlanta market last March, when it started flying five times a day from ATL to its Boston focus city. And now JetBlue has plans to double its Atlanta presence by adding five more daily flights there. Effective March 8, 2018, JetBlue will start flying from Atlanta to New York JFK twice a day, to Ft. Lauderdale twice a day, and to Orlando once a day. Elsewhere, JetBlue announced it will begin new service between Boston and Syracuse on January 4, offering one daily roundtrip with an Embraer 190.

In the ultra-low-cost carrier arena, Spirit Airlines on November 9 will begin daily A320 service between Las Vegas and Newark. And Frontier Airlines will start operating four flights a week from San Antonio to Washington Dulles on October 6, followed by four a week between San Antonio and Ontario, California beginning October 13.

Qatar Airways plans to start San Francisco service next year- image of Qatar’s current business class seat from a travel conference trade show floor. (Image: Chris McGinnis)

In international route news, Qatar Airways will add San Francisco service and delay Las Vegas; United plans changes to 787 schedules at SFO in 2018; Delta’s code goes onto a long-haul Air France route; Copa adds a new U.S. gateway; American will suspend its Auckland route for a while; Virgin Atlantic trims an Atlanta route; Spirit gives up a Caribbean destination; and United and American start up several seasonal Europe routes this week.

Laptop ban or no laptop ban, Qatar Airways plans to add service to another new U.S. destination next year: San Francisco. Company officials said at a travel show in Dubai last week that Qatar plans to bring a dozen new destinations onto its route map in 2018, including SFO – although it did not say exactly when the flights would start or what type of aircraft it would use. SFO tells TravelSkills that the service will be daily and could start in the second quarter of 2018 using a Boeing 777. Meanwhile, Qatar’s previously announced plan to start flying to Las Vegas on January 8 of next year has been pushed back to sometime in the second quarter. Qatar plans to fly the LAS-Doha route four times a week with a 777-200LR. Qatar Airways is a member of the Oneworld Alliance.

United will add 787-9s to more San Francisco routes next year. (Image: United)

United will make some changes in its 787 schedules at San Francisco next year, according to Routesonline.com. The carrier plans to deploy 787-9 Dreamliners on its daily flights from SFO to Seoul on March 18 and to Taipei on May 4, 2018, replacing 777-200ERs on both routes. At the same time, 787-9s will replace 787-8s on the SFO-Munich route May 4, 2018 and on the SFO-Chengdu, China route May 2. Also on March 24, United will switch from a 787-9 to a 787-8 on its Washington Dulles-London Heathrow route.

Delta last week gave its customers a new way to get to Singapore. In an expansion of code-sharing with joint venture partner Air France, Delta started putting its code onto Air France’s daily Paris CDG-Singapore flight. Meanwhile, Air France added new code-shares with Singapore Airlines, putting its code onto the latter’s flights beyond Singapore to Melbourne and Sydney, and on sister carrier SilkAir’s service to Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Phuket.

Copa Airlines economy class on a 737-800 (Image: Copa)

Panama’s Copa Airlines has set a December 11 start for new service between Denver and Panama City, which will be its thirteenth U.S. gateway. The carrier plans to fly the route four times a week with a 737-800.

Going to New Zealand later this year? American Airlines filed plans to suspend its Los Angeles-Auckland service for a while – specifically, from August 5 to October 4. When the flight resumes on October 5, it will use a 787-9 instead of the current 787-8. In another service cutback, Delta partner Virgin Atlantic will trim its Atlanta-Manchester schedule this winter. From October 29 through March 24, Virgin will fly the route three times a week instead of daily. And Spirit Airlines is giving up the ghost on Cuba: The carrier will terminate its Ft. Lauderdale-Havana flights effective May 31, citing weak demand.

It’s time for major carriers to start up their seasonal summer routes to Europe, and both United and American will launch a bunch of them this week. On May 5, United will kick off seasonal service from its Newark hub to Edinburgh, Venice, Stockholm and Hamburg; from Washington Dulles to Lisbon and Madrid; and from Chicago O’Hare to Rome and Dublin. Also on May 5, American Airlines will begin seasonal flights from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Amsterdam and Rome; and from Chicago O’Hare to Barcelona.

In domestic route developments, new transcontinental flights are due to start at San Jose over the next few weeks; United kicks off a transcon to Florida from San Francisco International; American launches a new California route from its Phoenix hub; Delta links two southern business centers; and Spirit comes to Pittsburgh.

Previously announced plans by United and Alaska Airlines to expand at Mineta San Jose will get off the ground next month. United’s schedule calls for the launch of new service from SJC to two of its hubs: Chicago O’Hare and Newark. The carrier will operate two flights a day between SJC and O’Hare, and one daily roundtrip to Newark Liberty International, using 737-800s. Both routes begin March 9. SJC-O’Hare is already served by American, and Southwest flies from SJC to Chicago Midway.

Just three days after United starts its SJC-Newark service, Alaska Airlines is due to begin service on the very same route, with one daily roundtrip. Both the United and Alaska flights will have early-morning eastbound departures. The only other New York-area non-stop service from San Jose is a JetBlue redeye to JFK. Alaska is also slated to klick off new service from San Jose to Hollywood Burbank Airport on March 16, with three daily roundtrips.

United also started SFO-Tampa service. (Image: Tampa International)

San Jose-Newark isn’t the only new Bay Area transcon route for United. The carrier recently began a daily 737-800 roundtrip from San Francisco International to Tampa, with an 8:30 a.m. departure from SFO. Chris was on the inaugural flight; you can read his report here. In other news, United plans to beef up capacity on its San Francisco-Boston route by using a 777-200ER for two of its six daily flights, up from one flight today, according to Routesonline.com.

California’s Sonoma County got a new air link recently when American Airlines kicked off new daily American Eagle service to its Phoenix hub from Santa Rosa’s Charles M. Schulz Airport. American uses a two-class, 70-seat CRJ-700 on the route.

Delta has set a June 12 start for new service linking Nashville with Raleigh-Durham. The Delta Connection service will operate twice a day with SkyWest Airlines CRJ-900s that have 12 seats in first class, 12 in Delta Comfort+ and 52 in the main cabin. It’s Delta’s latest announcement of increased service at RDU; the carrier is due to begin RDU-Austin flights in March and RDU-Seattle in June; last fall, it added daily service from RDU to Newark and to Washington Reagan National.

Spirit Airlines is adding new service from Pittsburgh to seven cities. (Image: Spirit Airlines)

Spirit Airlines said it will add Pittsburgh International as the 61st airport on its route map this spring, with plans to start flying from PIT to seven cities. On May 25, the carrier will begin daily PIT-Dallas/Ft. Worth year-round service, as well as seasonal daily flights from PIT to Myrtle Beach. It will add three weekly flights from PIT to Ft. Lauderdale on June 15, followed by daily service to Orlando and Las Vegas beginning June 22, and daily flights to Houston and Los Angeles starting July 13.

Delta is growing again at Cincinnati. (Image: Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport)

In domestic route news, Delta will grow at Cincinnati, and keeps a key Dallas route for now; Southwest adds new routes from Long Beach and Ontario; Alaska enters a new market from Orange County; Frontier adds new service in 10 markets; and Spirit Airlines expands in the northeast.

For years, Delta has been scaling back operations at Cincinnati, which was once one of its hubs. But now the airline plans to grow there, citing 15 straight months of increasing passenger numbers. Delta said its plan calls for a capacity increase of 6 percent in total seats flown out of Cincinnati, including the addition of more frequencies in five key business markets, with additional daily flights from Cincinnati to Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Orlando and Toronto.

It will also upgrade Cincinnati-Denver service to mainline aircraft, and will offer first class seating on all flights to Minneapolis-St. Paul. Its seasonal winter service from Cincinnati to Ft. Myers will continue to operate daily through the summer, Delta said, and its seasonal Seattle flights will extend into the fall and spring. Finally, departures from CVG to Charlotte, Hartford, Newark and Philadelphia will be retimed to permit easy same-day trips out and back. The airline will have a total of 82 peak-day departures at Cincinnati this summer, to 35 destinations. (More Cincy news below!)

Dallas Love Field will keep Delta service to Atlanta — for now. (Photo: Chris McGinnis(

In other news, Delta has won a court victory – for now, at least – that allows it to keep operating five flights a day between Atlanta and Dallas Love Field. Southwest has been eager to kick Delta out of the Southwest gates it has been subleasing at DAL, in a court fight that is going into its third year. A district court has blocked Southwest from doing so until the matter goes to trial, and this week an appellate court upheld that ruling. So Delta’s DAL-ATL route is safe for the time being. Delta offers even more service between ATL and Dallas/Ft. Worth.

Southwest Airlines is adding two new routes out of southern California. From Long Beach, Southwest just started operating twice-weekly 737-700 service to Denver. The flights operate on Saturdays and Sundays. Southwest has also kicked off new daily 737-700 flights between Ontario, California and Dallas Love Field.

Continuing its growth at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, Alaska Airlines has set an August 18 start for new service from SNA to Albuquerque. The flights will operate once a day, using Horizon Air E175 jets with 12 first class seats, 12 in premium class and 52 in regular economy. That’s the same date that Alaska will begin recently announced new service between Portland and Albuquerque.

Frontier Airlines plans to kick off new daily service between Cincinnati and New York LaGuardia on April 21, and it also announced new service with less-than-daily frequencies on nine other routes. From Austin, Frontier will begin four flights a week to Washington Dulles on April 21, and three a week to San Diego beginning April 23. Other new service from Cincinnati includes four flights a week to Minneapolis beginning April 21 and three a week to San Diego starting May 21. From Cleveland, Frontier will add four weekly flights to Charlotte on April 21, three a week to Minneapolis starting April 23, four a week to Houston Bush Intercontinental and four a week to San Diego, with both routes starting May 22. Also on the schedule is new service three days week between Chicago O’Hare and San Antonio starting April 23.

Spirit Airlines will add new service out of Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport to sun destinations this spring. On April 27, Spirit will launch daily service from Bradley to Orlando, and four flights a week to Myrtle Beach, S.C. On June 15, the airline will add daily service from Bradley to Ft. Lauderdale.

Membership in PreCheck costs $85 for five years. PreCheck expedited screening is also open to members of Customs and Border Protection’s trusted traveler programs like Global Entry. PreCheck screening is now offered at some 180 U.S. airports, TSA said.

In domestic route news, Delta, Alaska and American each announced several new markets for 2017; JetBlue kicks off a California corridor route; and Spirit adds 10 markets.

Delta just announced plans to pile on more flights at its growing Seattle hub this year, with tickets for the new routes going on sale January 14. The new service includes a daily roundtrip to Milwaukee beginning March 9; three flights a day to Eugene, Oregon starting April 1; a daily Nashville flight as of May 26; a daily Raleigh-Durham flight effective June 8; a daily roundtrip to Austin beginning June 12; two flights a day to Redmond, Oregon as of June 12; and one a day to Lihue, Kauai starting December 21.

Portland International will get more Alaska Airliners service this spring. (Image: Jim Glab)

Alaska Airlines will beef up its operations at Portland this spring and summer with new service in four markets. It will begin a daily roundtrip May 22 from Portland to Philadelphia; another on June 5 from PDX to Milwaukee; and a third on June 6 from Portland to Baltimore/Washington International. Those will all operate seasonally until the last week of August; Milwaukee gets a SkyWest E175 while the other two will use 737s. Then on August 18, Alaska’s Horizon Air will start new daily year-round service from Portland to Albuquerque with an E175.

Routesonline.com reports that American Airlines’ latest schedule updates include new summer service in seven markets, all starting June 2. From its Phoenix hub, American will add service once a day to Eugene, Oregon; Jackson Hole, Wyoming (seasonal until August 21); and Medford, Oregon. Jackson Hole gets an A319 and the other two will use American Eagle/SkyWest CRJ-700s. From Dallas/Ft. Worth, American Eagle/Envoy Air will start flying once a day to Traverse City, Michigan (seasonal through August 21) and to Billings, Montana, using E175s. And from Chicago O’Hare, Eagle/SkyWest will start one daily CRJ-700 roundtrip to Bozeman, Montana (seasonal until October 4).

JetBlue, which briefly flew the intra-California route from its Long Beach focus city to San Jose seven years ago, jumped back into that market last week. The airline will use its 150-seat A320s to fly the route four times a day.

Spirit Airlines unveiled plans to add 10 new routes this spring from Houston, New Orleans, Baltimore/Washington and Detroit. From Houston Bush Intercontinental, Spirit will begin year-round service to Newark and seasonal flights to Seattle on April 27. New routes from New Orleans, all operating year-round beginning May 25, include Baltimore/Washington, Cleveland and Orlando. The new BWI service, all seasonal and starting May 25, will be to Oakland, San Diego and Seattle. And new seasonal service starts May 25 from Detroit to Oakland and Seattle.

In domestic route news, there’s lots of extra capacity coming to Florida, including new United routes from San Francisco and Spirit Airlines routes from Ohio, plus a new Florida destination for Frontier Airlines. Meanwhile, Virgin America plans to increase capacity from the West Coast to Newark Liberty International Airport.

United will use 737s on new San Francisco routes to Florida. (Image: United)

United’s newest domestic routes from San Francisco will be to Florida, starting in late fall and winter. The airline said it plans to begin a daily San Francisco-Miami flight on December 16, reviving a route that it dropped 12 years ago. United will also introduce a daily SFO-Tampa flight beginning February 16. Both routes will use 737s.

Just a few days after Alaska Airlines announced some new routes to Newark, Virgin America said it will also take advantage of the FAA’s plan to open up more slots at that airport this fall. Effective November 18, Virgin plans to increase Newark frequencies from three flights a day to four from both San Francisco and Los Angeles. The extra SFO flight is scheduled for a 9:40 a.m. departure from San Francisco, while the fourth LAX departure will be at 7 a.m.

Spirit Airlines is adding new service from Ohio to Florida (Image: Spirit Airlines)

Spirit Airlines plans a big expansion of service at Akron/Canton, adding four Florida destinations beginning November 10. The schedule includes new daily flights from Akron to Ft. Lauderdale and to Orlando, along with seasonal service from Akron to Ft. Myers four days a week and to Tampa three days a week. On the same date, meanwhile, Spirit will also suspend service between Cleveland and Dallas/Ft. Worth, changing that route from year-round to seasonal; the DFW flights will begin again on April 26.

Punta Gorda, Florida is about 25 miles north of Ft. Myers, and it has an airport that’s a lot less busy than the latter city’s Southwest Florida International; Punta Gorda is currently served only by Allegiant Airlines. So Punta Gorda is the newest airport that will go onto Frontier Airlines’ route map. On October 30, Frontier will add new service to Punta Gorda from Trenton, N.J., operating year-round four days a week. On the same date, Frontier will begin seasonal service three days a week between Punta Gorda-Philadelphia and Punta Gorda-Chicago O’Hare, continuing through April.

Last month, the U.S. Transportation Department awarded U.S. carriers new route rights to serve secondary cities in Cuba, but not the biggest plum – Havana.

This week, DOT finally acted on all the requests it had from U.S. airlines to operate regular scheduled service to the Cuban capital, awarding Havana routes to eight airlines for flights that are likely to start sometime this fall.

The preliminary route awards are still subject a public comment period before being finalized. Tickets are not yet on sale, but should be later this summer. Right now, round trip charter flights from Miami to Havana are running at about $450 round trip, a price that we expect to drop significantly when competition cranks up in the fall.

The only Havana route from the West Coast went to Alaska Airlines, which will operate daily non-stops from Los Angeles using a two-class, 181-passenger 737-900ER. The flight will originate in Seattle, offering same-plane service top Cuba. Alaska said it expects to begin the service by year’s end. From LAX or SFO, current fares to Havana via Mexico City (Aeromexico) or Panama City (Copa) are about $625 round trip.

Most of the new routes will be from the eastern U.S., especially Florida. The exception to that rule was DOT’s selection of United to operate Houston-Havana flights, but only once a week. United will also operate daily non-stops to Havana from its Newark hub.

American Airlines will offer four daily roundtrips to Havana from Miami and one a day from Charlotte; Delta’s new route authority includes daily roundtrips to Havana from Atlanta, New York JFK and Miami; JetBlue won rights for two daily flights from Ft. Lauderdale and one each from New York JFK and Orlando; Southwest’s new route authority provides for two daily roundtrips from Ft. Lauderdale and one from Tampa; Spirit Airlines got two daily Ft. Lauderdale-Havana flights; and Frontier will be allowed a single daily flight from Miami to Havana.

Nonstops to Havana from US cities announced today (Image: Great Circle Mapper)

Technically, the U.S. still does not allow for simple tourist travel to Cuba; Americans who go there must fall into one of 12 categories approved by the government, including things like journalistic activity, professional research and meetings, educational activities and so on. Here’s a link to the Treasury Department’s rules for travel to Cuba.

Have you been to Cuba yet? Will you go in the near future? Why or why not? Please leave your comments below!

TSA’s PreCheck program is getting a lot busier this summer. (Image: TSA)

Now that the Transportation Security Administration is trying mightily to convince more travelers to join its PreCheck program in order to cut down on overall waiting times at security checkpoints, that program is facing some new strains: Two more airlines will soon be participating in it, and a surge in PreCheck applications is slowing down processing.

The only two large U.S. airlines whose passengers cannot currently use PreCheck – even if they are members — are Spirit and Frontier. The reason is a problem with their operations software, which is unable to communicate passenger information to TSA.

But according to the travel industry news website Skift, those problems should be resolved within a matter of weeks, allowing the two carriers to fully participate in the expedited screening program and sending thousands of additional travelers into PreCheck lines. Skift said the two carriers could start PreCheck participation as soon as the end of July.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting that persons who apply for PreCheck membership (or Customs and Border Protection’s Global Entry, which includes PreCheck privileges) are facing long waits – not at the airport, but in getting their applications processed.

Both programs require a personal interview, and TSA is using an outside vendor to provide more than 300 locations nationwide for that purpose. But AP reported that at many enrollment centers located in big cities, appointment calendars are full up for the next month and a half – or in some cities, much longer.

The AP said that the number of PreCheck applicants has more than tripled over the past few months, rising to 16,000 a day in May.

These very special solo seats in Mint class on JetBlue now on SFO-BOS (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

In new domestic route activity, JetBlue’s first Mint-equipped aircraft starts flying between San Francisco and Boston, and the airline plans more flights out of Long Beach; Alaska Airlines adds a pair of new markets from Orange County Airport; Delta will soon kick off a new transcontinental route; United is about to add an East Coast spoke from its Denver hub; and Spirit Airlines jumps into a busy West Coast city pair.

JetBlue on Thursday (March 24) put an Airbus A321 equipped with its premium Mint cabin into service on one of its three daily flights between San Francisco and Boston. Mint service provides flat-bed seats, a small number of private suites, tapas-style dining, 15-inch flat screen monitors with DIRECTV, and free Fly-Fi Wi-Fi. A Mint-equipped A321 will be deployed on a second SFO-BOS flight starting April 20 and will be on all three effective September 20. The latest update on JetBlue’s plans for Los Angeles-Boston Mint service calls for one daily Mint flight to begin October 30, with all three daily flights on that route offering the premium cabin by November 17. (Here’s our Trip Report from JetBlue’s Mint service when it debuted last winter.)

Meanwhile, JetBlue also announced that it obtained some additional slots at Long Beach, California, which will enable it to begin new Long Beach-Reno/Tahoe flights starting August 15, and to add one more daily roundtrip to both its Long Beach-San Francisco and Long Beach-Oakland schedules effective August 15 and 16 respectively.

Speaking of Boston, we’re getting close to the launch of a new Delta transcontinental route between Boston and its fast-growing operation at Seattle-Tacoma International. April 4 is the scheduled starting date; Delta will use a 737-800 for the single daily roundtrip.

United Airlines plans an April 5 start for new service from its Denver hub, adding one daily roundtrip to Richmond, Virginia. The airline will use a 76-seat Embraer 175 with first class, Economy Plus and regular economy seating on the route, which at 1,482 miles will be the longest flight available out of Richmond.

Alaska Airlines continues to expand at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California. Last week, it started flying from Orange County to Reno/Tahoe and to Santa Rosa, California, using 76-seat Q400 turboprops to operate one daily roundtrip in each market.

Spirit Airlines added a new point on its route map Thursday (March 24) with the beginning of service at Seattle-Tacoma. The airline’s first route there is to Los Angeles International, with two flights a day. In mid-April, Spirit will add a pair of daily Seattle-Las Vegas flights.

Atlanta is turning into the newest test market for the hottest trend in the airline business — the ultra-low-cost carrier.Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines are both planning significant expansion at ATL: Spirit said last week that it is adding nine new routes there this coming spring and summer, and Frontier announced today that it will fly nonstop to 10 more cities from ATL, for a total of 16.

On April 30, Frontier will launch a daily nonstop between Atlanta and: Cincinnati, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York LaGuardia, New Orleans and Minneapolis/St. Paul. To celebrate, the airline is offering one-way fares as low as $19 between ATL and New Orleans or Orlando. It should not go unnoticed that nearly every one of these cities is a key Delta hub or focus city, so it’s clear that low-frills Frontier has Delta in its crosshairs (Southwest, too).

A Frontier spokesperson told TravelSkills, “Frontier is going from six destinations to 16 from ATL by April 30. We will be ATL’s third largest carrier in terms of departures this summer. Denver is still our largest hub, followed by Chicago O’Hare, then Atlanta.”

Just last week, Delta and Southwest faced another significant threat by another “ultra low cost” carrier. As we reported on TravelSkills, Spirit Airlines announced nine new nonstop routes from ATL, giving it a total of 15 destinations out of Atlanta.

Frontier previously announced that it will launch nonstops from ATL to Austin, Indianapolis, Miami and Philadelphia in March.

It will be interesting to see how the established players respond. Equally interesting will be to see how these two ultra-low cost entrants will fight since many of these new routes overlap. In either case, it likely means lower fares in Atlanta and elsewhere. But stay tuned… both carriers have a history of moving in and out of markets very quickly.

Highly restricted, but quite a good deal if you can get one, and avoid all the extra fees. But will you?

Let’s compare these two ultra-low cost contenders:

The two airlines have some strategic similarities. With their focus on keeping basic fares to an absolute minimum, they charge more kinds of ancillary fees than other airlines(most notoriously for carry-on bags that go in the overhead bin). They also tend to have limited schedules, rarely more than one flight a day in a given market, and often only a few flights a week — hardly ideal for business travelers who value schedule frequency above all else. That’s because these airlines are going after extremely price-sensitive customers, nibbling around the edges of the larger market.

And from a bottom-line standpoint, it’s a formula that works: Spirit has become a darling of Wall Street, with better profit margins than its larger competitors and ambitious growth plans. Spirit’s total capacity rose by 18 percent last year, and is expected to increase an amazing 30 percent in 2015, making it — in percentage terms, at least — the fastest-growing airline in the country. But Spirit, which has been flying scheduled passenger service since 1992, is also the only U.S. carrier to hold a lowly two-star rating from Skytrax, the big airline quality monitor.

Frontier has been around even longer if you count the original Denver-based carrier that started up in 1950 but went bust after the airline deregulation wars. The modern incarnation of Frontier dates back to 2001, and it was acquired — after it went bankrupt — by Republic Airlines Holdings, an operator of regional carriers, in 2009. After a few years of trying, Republic couldn’t make Frontier work in a highly competitive Denver market (where United was dominant and Southwest was moving in fast), or in the other various markets where it tried to establish a niche, so in 2013 it sold Frontier to new investors — the private equity firm Indigo Partners, which turned Frontier into an ultra-low-cost carrier. That wasn’t really a surprise, since the man who runs Indigo Partners — William Franke — pioneered the concept when he ran Spirit Airlines.

Spirit Airlines’ A320s offer a tight 28 inches of space between each seat- the tightest in the industry (Photo: Bernal Saborio / Flickr)

So how do these two ATL interlopers stack up against each other? Both rely on one-class, single-aisle Airbus planes. The standard seats on Spirit’s A319s, A320s and A321s have a knee-crunching 28-inch pitch and seats that are less than 18 inches wide (“We’re a cozy airline,” Spirit admits on its website). The planes also offer a few better seats (four on A320/321s; 10 on A319s) called “Big Front,” with 36-inch pitch and 20-inch width, and of course they’ll cost you extra. At Frontier, standard seats have a more generous (by ultra-low-cost carrier standards) 30-31 inch pitch and seat width of 18 inches. Frontier’s planes also offer 30 (on A319s) or 36 (A320s) “Stretch” seats at an extra cost, with 36-38 inch pitch and 18-inch width.

Fares on Spirit are transportation-only, or as Spirit calls them, “fully unbundled.” If you want anything more than a seat and storage under the seat for a small personal item, you’ll pay more. At Spirit, that even includes water. If you don’t print your boarding pass at home, Spirit charges you $10 to do it at the airport. At Spirit, the cost for a carry-on bag ranges from $26 (if you pay online when you book) to $100 (if you wait until you’re at the gate to pay).

Business travelers may want to consider Frontier’s “Stretch seats” which offer more legroom (Image: Frontier Airlines)

And checked bags carry fees as well, ranging from $21 to $100 for the first one. Want to select your seat before check-in? That’ll cost you from $1 to $50 for standard seats, or $12 to $199 for Big Front seats.

At Frontier, the fee for a carry-on bag ranges from $30 to $50 depending on when you pay, although Frontier does offer bundled fares that cost more but include some services. So for those who buy these Classic Plus fares (which allow full refundability, same-day standbys and no change fees) there’s no extra charge for a carry-on (nor is there one if you’re a Summit or Ascent-level member of Frontier’s Early Returns loyalty program). A checked bag costs $25-$30, again with exemptions for Classic Plus buyers and loyalty elites. Extra-legroom Stretch seats on Frontier are available free to Classic Plus fare buyers and to Summit and Ascent-level loyalty members; other passengers can upgrade for fees that start at $15. (Frontier also offers “Select” seats for fees starting at $5. These are just regular coach seats that happen to be closer to the front of the plane than the others.)

Both airlines also have loyalty programs that are pretty basic. Spirit’s is called Free Spirit and Frontier’s is EarlyReturns. Free Spirit is quite limited in its partner companies — just one hotel group, for instance (Choice Hotels International). Frontier’s plan is more traditional in that it offers tier levels that carry fee-waiving benefits, starting with Ascent level at 15,000 miles or 20 segments a year; Summit is 25,000 miles/30 segments.

So, frequent traveler… what do you think? Would you venture to fly on an “ultra-low cost carrier?” How do you think Delta will respond in Atlanta, or other legacies will respond in other cities? Please leave your comments below.

Did you miss Saturday’s issue of our Weekend Edition? No probs! Here’s the link:

Big mileage switch starts. On January 1, Delta became the first of the Big Three U.S. legacy airlines to transform the basis of earnings in its loyalty plan from distance flown to money spent. Under the new regime, non-elite SkyMiles members will get five miles per dollar spent on air fare, Silver Medallions earn seven miles per dollar, Golds get eight, Platinums nine and Diamonds 11. Delta has an online comparison calculator so you can figure how much a given flight would earn in the old vs. new structures. United will put the same spending-based structure in place for MileagePlus members starting March 1. (American/US Airways for now is sticking with the traditional mileage scheme, although during 2015 it has new mileage bonuses based on fare class, elite status and distance flown.) Some observers say the change to spending-based programs is a logical development following the hotel industry’s lead, but others see it as the latest step in a class warfare where airlines disproportionately cater to big spenders at the expense everyone else. Readers: Have you run any numbers to see if you’ll be better off under the new criteria vs. the old? What did you find?

Etihad mess. Etihad, which launched San Francisco-Abu Dhabi nonstops using Jet Airways B777s in November, took a big hit over the weekend when fog struck in Abu Dhabi. SFO-bound flight 183 had started its taxi toward take off when the flight was halted due to foggy conditions. Passengers ended up stuck on the tarmac for about 12 hours with no opportunities to get off the plane– and lots of bickering between passengers and flight crews according to various reports. After that ordeal, passengers endured the 16-hour flight to SFO. Luckily, the only damage from this incident is frayed nerves on the part of travelers and a big black eye for an airline just getting started in SFO. Regrettably, an elderly passenger on a Dusseldorf-bound flight facing a similar delay died. Since US rules (or fines and compensation) for such delays do not apply foreign airlines operating overseas, it will be up to Eithad to determine how it will compensate passengers and repair its image. Stay tuned….

Alaska lifts bag fee temporarily. All members of Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan who fly on the carrier during January will get a break from the carrier’s $25 fee for a first checked bag during that month. If you booked a January flight at an earlier date and your Mileage Plan number is in the reservation, the fee waiver will kick in automatically during check-in. What’s the purpose of the month-long fee waiver? “To encourage new and existing members to experience the benefits of Alaska’s award-winning frequent flier program,” the company said. For details, go to www.alaskaair.com/FirstBagFree.

Routes: Virgin, American, Spirit. Virgin America Airlines has kicked off new seasonal daily flights between New York JFK and Ft. Lauderdale … American reportedly plans to revive American Eagle service between Cleveland and New York LaGuardia on March 29, with three ERJ-140 flights a day — the same day United plans to trim its CLE-LGA schedule from eight daily roundtrips to six … Spirit Airlines is growing in southern California; it will launch daily San Diego-Denver service January 6, Los Angeles-Cleveland flights April 16 and a daily LAX-Denver roundtrip on the same date.

Meeting room at Phoenix Marriott Mesa Hotel (Photo: Marriott)

HOTELS

Marriott explains Mi-Fi blocking. Remember a few months ago when Marriott was slapped with a $600,000 fine by the FCC after its Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville was caught blocking the personal Wi-Fi mobile hotspots (also known as Mi-Fi) that some guests were using at meetings there? Marriott and the American Hotel and Lodging Association are asking the FCC for a ruling that such blockages do not violate federal rules, and last week Marriott sought to clarify its position on the issue. Marriott said it will never block guests’ Mi-Fi signals in guestrooms or lobbies — in fact, it encourages such activity. Instead, it only wants to block “rogue and imposter Wi-Fi hotspots used in our meeting and conference spaces that pose a security threat to meeting or conference attendees or cause interference to the conference guest wireless network.” (But if you read through the AHLA/Marriott petition to the FCC, it doesn’t say anything about limiting hotels’ Mi-Fi blockage authority only to meeting rooms.) Meanwhile, Google and Microsoft, along with other respondents, have jumped into the debate, urging the FCC to continue barring hotels from imposing any restrictions on Mi-Fi hotspots. Do you ever use your own Wi-Fi hotspot in a hotel? Will this be unnecessary as the big chains roll out free standard Wi-Fi at all their hotels? Post comments below.

Hilton, Marriott cancellation policies start. Just a reminder: January 1 was the effective date for new policies and Hilton and Marriott that require guests who won’t show up to cancel their booking no later than the day before their expected arrival. Otherwise, they’ll forfeit the cost of a night’s stay. (Some say the purpose is to stop guests from looking for better rates on last-minute booking sites.) We haven’t seen other major lodging groups match the policies yet, and if too many guests book away from Hilton and Marriott in favor of more lenient cancellation rules, the new policies might not last. Do cancellation policies affect your choice of hotels? Add comments below.

Starwood adds three Alofts. Are you a tech-minded Millennial? Then you’re the target market for Starwood Hotels’ trendy Aloft brand, and the company just opened three of them in key domestic business destinations. In Detroit, the historic David Whitney Building at One Park Avenue has been converted into a 136-room Aloft Hotel; another new Aloft has opened at 16th and Stout in the heart of downtown Denver; and the third has made its debut at Buffalo, N.Y.’s airport. Here’s our take on the Aloft near San Francisco International airport.

AIRPORTS

Free Wi-Fi coming to NYC airports. By the end of the first quarter of 2015, travelers in all terminals of the three major New York City-area airports should be able to enjoy 30 minutes of free Wi-Fi with no ads. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is working with Boingo Wireless to upgrade Wi-Fi technology at LaGuardia, JFK and Newark so that free high-speed 30-minute sessions can be offered in all of them. Currently, the amenity is in EWR’s Terminal C, LGA’s Central Terminal and JFK’s Terminal 4. For more time online, the system will offer hourly, daily or monthly fees.

Spirit Airlines, which bills itself as “the ultra low cost carrier,” quietly entered the Bay Area this week, with four daily nonstops between Oakland and Las Vegas.

From Vegas, fliers can fly nonstop to its main hub at Ft Lauderdale– and from there connecting to points in Latin America and Caribbean.

Spirit also offers nonstops from Vegas to Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago-O’Hare, Dallas-Ft Worth and San Diego.

While I would normally get excited about new flights from the Bay, I’m filled with trepidation instead. Why? Spirit has a very strong “you-get-what-you-pay-for” reputation. (Disclosure: I have not flown Spirit yet. This is what I’ve heard anecdotally, online review sites and from media reports.)

A quick scan of Spirit’s OAK-LAS fares shows some good deals, but with some caveats. (Note Spirit fares do not show up on travel search engines…you must shop at spirit.com)

During September and October, Spirit is promoting $9 each way, $18 round trips between Oakland and Las Vegas. Sounds great, but you have to pay a $60 fee to join its “club” to get that fare.

Don’t want to join? Then the base fare jumps to $22 round trip.

But that’s not what you pay. In addition, you will pay Spirit’s unique “passenger usage fee” of $16 per round trip, plus the usual federal taxes, so the round trip ends up at $59.40. (This fee covers the cost of Spirit maintaining its web site, so the only way to avoid this fee is to go to Oakland and buy your tickets at the airport.)

But wait, it does not stop there.

If you carry on a bag, you’ll pay an additional $30 each way, making the total price $119.40. (Want to check your bag at the airport? That will be $40 each way!)

Want to reserve a window seat near the front of the plane, or one next to the person you are traveling with? That’s an extra $14 each way, $28 round trip, so now the ticket price is $147.40

By comparison, the lowest fare on Virgin America for SFO-Las Vegas in mid-September (including all taxes and fees) is $133.40.

Have you ever, or would you fly Spirit? Please leave your comments below.

Editor Chris McGinnis

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